As the ongoing battle over the fiscal cliff wages on in Washington, taxpayers across the country are watching the news – and their wallets – as the January 1 deadline looms closer. The details of the potential tax hike would be especially troubling for African-American households. On Thursday, December 6, President Barack Obama and the White House released a fact sheet highlighting the number of families who would feel the brunt if the House doesn’t continue tax cuts for the middle class before the deadline.

Obama’s desire to increase taxes for only those earning $250,000 and more has been met with resistance by the Republican Party-led Congress and other elected officials seeking to stop tax hikes. The President’s plan to tax higher earning citizens is rooted in the idea that this measure will create more revenue and pare down the nation’s staggering deficit. If House leaders can’t come to a compromise with the President, then a family of four with a median income around $53,000 could see a tax increase around $2,200, according to “The Middle Class Tax Cuts Impact On African-American Families” fact sheet.

The fact sheet also highlights a report from Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) who say that tax increases will slow the economy and families will spend up to $200 billion less in 2013 than they did this year. Other dangers to African Americans include the lowering of the $1,000 tax credit to just $500, and even for two-income Black households that earn six figures , they will see a significant jump in what they’ll owe Uncle Sam each year.

As the politics play themselves out inside the Beltway, the clock is certainly ticking on Black families who are hopeful that a decision can be made sooner than later. Either way, the President isn’t folding to the gruff and often haughty stance from Republican House Speaker Jim Boehner, who — along with his party representatives — risk being voted out in the 2014 midterm elections.